lnternational Journal of Forensic Mental Health

The International Journal of Forensic Mental Health is the official journal of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services. A complimentary subscription to the journal is a benefit of membership of the society. The journal published its first issue in March, 2002, and four issues are published annually. The latest (2023) impact factor of the journal is 1.3 Clarivate, 2023, Scopus®, 2023).

The International Journal of Forensic Mental Health is devoted to research and practice in the field of forensic mental health. It provides an international forum for encouraging and disseminating research and practice developments to forensic mental health professionals, academics, and scholars. The focus of the journal is on forensic mental health service issues including, but not limited to, the assessment, treatment, recovery and rehabilitation of youth and adults with mental health problems who also have a history of offending, as well as matters pertaining to criminal responsibility, competency or fitness to stand trial, and risk assessment and management. The journal reflects the international audience represented by the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services, and articles describing or comparing the law and/or practice in different countries are encouraged.

The target audience for the journal is mental health practitioners, service administrators and policy makers, and other professionals whose research or practice focuses on forensic mental health.

Manuscript submissions should be submitted online (see HERE). Manuscripts should conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition). More detailed instructions on how to format and submit your manuscript can be found HERE.

Please let your colleagues know about our journal and submit your best work for review.

All Members have Free Online Access to the Journal

As a member of International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services you are eligible to access International Journal of Forensic Mental Health online.

Access journal here. 

Please note you will have to log in to your IAFMHS account to access the journal. Please contact iafmhs@sfu.ca if you have any difficulties. 

Alternatively, you can access the journal starting from an article page from the International Journal of Forensic Mental Health on Sage Journals:

1. ​From the article page, click on "Get access" and then select "Society"
2. Click on the IAFMHS "Membership Login" button, which will direct you to the AFMHS membership login page
3. Log in using your IAFMHS membership credentials
4. Navigate to the members only area, where you should find link to access the journal. ​

You can also access the journal starting from the Sage Journals home page:

1. Click on "Access/profile" and "View access options"
2. Under "Society" search for IAFMHS and select the society
3. Click on the "Membership Login" button, which will direct you to the IAFMHS membership login page
4. Log in using your IAFMHS membership credentials
5. Navigate to the members only area, where you should find link to access the journal.

Become an Editorial Board Member

The International Journal of Forensic Mental Health invites people who are appropriately qualified and have diligently provided high quality reviews to the journal to self-nominate for the Editorial Board. Editorial Board members are required to commit to reviewing ~6 papers per year. Please send a succinct paragraph to an Associate Editor who is familiar with your reviews, the Editor-in-Chief (Michael Daffern - mdaffern@swin.edu.au), or the Editorial Assistant (Riley Luke - - rileyluke@swin.edu.au) describing your qualifications to be a reviewer, your contributions to the Association (e.g., served on the Advisory Board, worked on a Local Organizing Committee), and/or journal to date (e.g., provided high quality reviews consistently for past 3 years). Finally, please include a minimum of 4-5 areas of expertise and your preferred title and affiliation. 

Become a Reviewer

If you are interested in becoming an ad-hoc reviewer please contact us. In order to facilitate this process, we recommend that you are nominated by a member of IAFMHS (a succinct email is sufficient) and provide us with your CV and up to five areas of expertise; you can send this to our editor-in-chief with the editorial assistant in CC.

We are particularly interested in supporting student reviewers. Students should be admitted to a graduate program in a related discipline and must have a direct supervisor who is willing to collaborate on the review(s). If you are interested in becoming a student reviewer, please send your CV with a brief statement of support by your supervisor, and include up to five areas of expertise, to our editor-in-chief, with the editorial assistant in CC.

Editorial Team

			Editor-in-Chief  |  Michael Daffern Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, and Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare); AUSTRALIA
			Associate Editor  |  Brian McKenna School of Clinical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Auckland Regional Forensic Psychiatry Services; NEW ZEALAND
			Associate Editor  |  Stuart Thomas School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University; AUSTRALIA
			Associate Editor   |   Alicia Nijdam-Jones Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba; CANADA Associate Editor   |   Jack Tomlin School of Law and Criminology, University of Greenwich; UNITED KINGDOM Associate Editor   |   Georgia Winters School of Psychology and Counselling, Fairleigh Dickinson University; USA
			Associate Editor   |   Carlo Garofalo Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy

FOUNDING EDITORS

Ronald Roesch - Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Stephen D. Hart - Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Canada

EDITORIAL BOARD

Evan Auguste, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

Adam Coffey, Private practice, Salem, Oregon, USA

Jennifer Cox, Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, USA

Vivienne de Vogel, Centre for Social Innovation, Utrecht University of Applied Science, Netherlands

Eric Elbogen, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, USA

Emily Glorney, Royal Holloway University of London, England

Kris Goethals, Antwerp University Hospital & University of Antwerp, Belgium

Emily Gottfried, Community & Public Safety Psychiatry Division (CPSPD), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, USA

Lindsay Healey, Department of Psychological Science, School of Social Ecology, University of California Irvine, US

Kirk Heilbrun, Department of Psychology, Drexel University, USA

Evan Holloway, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), USA

Christopher M. King, Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, USA

Mette Kreis, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scotland, UK

Brianne Layden, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Tella Lantta, Department of Nursing, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Finland

Tess Maguire, Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Hjalmar van Marle, Department of Forensic Psychiatry of the Erasmus Medical Center and the Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Kaitlyn McLachlan, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Canada

Abby L. Mulay, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, USA

Ade Ogunwale, Dept. of Clinical Services, Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Nigeria

Stephanie Penney, Forensic Division at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada

Emilie Picard, Private Practice, North Carolina, USA

Danny Sullivan, Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Australia

Laurence Roy, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Canada

Barry Rosenfeld, Department of Psychology, Fordham University, USA

Michael Seto, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research, Canada

Alexander (Sandy) Simpson, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada

Ben Spivak, Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Australia

Patricia Zapf, Continuing & Professional Studies, Palo Alto University, USA